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AN ■ ^ i 3d 



ORATION, 



DELIVERED 



BY TKICIB APPOINTinKNT, 



THE WASHISSrai'OM SOCISTTp 



CHARLESTON, SOUTH-CAROLINA, 



4th of July, 1839. 



BY BENJAMOr FANEUIL. HUWT, 

A MEMBEB. 



CJarleston : 

PRINTED BY S. S. MILLER. 

No. 50 East-Bay. 

1839. 



The Oration was introduced by Reading the first and last 
Clauses of the Declaration of Independence, promulgated by 
the Continental Congress, on the 4th of July, 1776. 



• 









1 



ORATION. 



This day 1776 formed an epoch in the history of 
mankind, which must in after ages be a subject of 
deep reflection and high moment. The antagonist 
principles of hereditary power and the sovereignty 
of the people were on this day put directly in com- 
petition. Our fathers, believing with religious faith 
in the ability of the people to govern themselves, re- 
solved, smarting as they were under recent instances 
of injustice and misrule, to sever at once the ties that 
united them to a distant monarchy, and trusting to 
that providence which had guided their ancestors 
over the dark wair^rs of the mighty deep, and pro- 
tected their infant settlements, to try the experiment 
of republican government and bid defiance hereafter 
to the dictate of foreign rule. 

On the recurrence of this anniversary it has been 
usual to analize the moral influences which led the 
men of that day to dare the most powerful nation of 
Europe, — flushed with recent victory, old in :iii the 
usages of war, exhaustless in resources, and exas- 
perated by a resistance which added a sense of filial 
ingratitude to national hostility — of rebellion and 
treason to the bitterness of ordinary conflicts : and 
the day has been celebrated as a festival to com- 
memorate the martial virtues, the patriotic devotion 
and noble daring of the armies and revolutionary as- 
semblies of that eventful period. 
1 



Our citizens absorbed in the pursuits of industry 
and enterprize, too seldom stop to contemplate the 
peculiar blessings the}^ enjoy, or the sources whence 
they emanated. The emigrant who has left behind 
him governments based on the divine right of kings, 
with all their attendants of standing armies, establish- 
ed hierarchies, hereditary legislators, the insolent 
prerogative of birth, landed aristocracy, and all those 
appliances by which the peace, the rights and happi- 
ness of the many are made to minister to the pride 
and luxury of the £ew; it is the emigrant, traversing 
our wide cm})ire, who regards with wonder and ad- 
miration a })('()ple enjoying equal rights, religious 
ireedom and an abundance of all the good things of 
life at no higher cost than honest industry — a people 
wlio a})point their own rulers and change them at 
will, under written constitutions framed, in their 
primitive assemblies to protect the minority against 
any sucUlen burst of po]>uiar feeling — -where every 
office iS open to the humblest citizen, with no other 
title than his own mei'its — where wealth is the re- 
ward of enter[)rize, industry and integrity; no armed 
jruards, no pr;etoriaii cohorts, no Janissary bands to 
control the people t;ncl protect their rulers from re- 
sponsibility, ;nid still the equal laws of society quietly 
administered, private rights })erfectly protected, and 
public order rigidly maintained. He sees and ad- 
mires these results of the great experiment begun 
this day sixty- three years ago. It is iitting then in 
us, who are in the actual fruition of all these Lless- 
in(TS, to devote this day to the contemplation of an 
enterprize fruitful in consequences so precious to us, 
so important to the world. It is meet on this day to 



wreath wilAi garlands and bind willi laurels the nionii- 
ments and statues of those ancestors, who lived in re- 
nown or died the champions of a nation's freedom. 
On this day, too, it becomes us as dependants on that 
providence in wliich our parents trusted, to remem- 
ber him in whose hands are the destinies of nations. 
This is the dny of our national passover, on which 
the God of our fatliers watched over and spared our 
people from the scourge oi' a foreign and exasperated 
foe, ])repared the way for final delivery from a foreign 
yoke, and gave us a name and a place among the na- 
tions of the earth. It is fitting, then, now to go up to 
liis holy habitation and olTer in his temple the sacri- 
fice of pious thanksgiving and praise for all the good 
things wliich this day's action lia'^^e so profusely scat- 
tered over our fair inheritance, and bow down and 
worship before him. Permit me, then, this duty |)aid, 
to call your attention to subjects comiected v\ath this 
solemn occasion. I propose to investigate the causes 
and character of this signal revolutioii, to trace its ef- 
fect, actual and prospective, upon the old world, and 
finally, the change which it has already produced 
and is destined still to work in the political condition 
of this continent, and its inikienccs on the moral and 
intellectual features of this })eople, which ai'e to con- 
stitute the peculiarities of the national character of 
the citizens of the United States of America, and I 
trust the picture, true to nature, will inspire us with 
a love and veneration for the institutions of our 
country, and a firm determination to preserve, pro- 
tect and defend them, and to this resolve to pledge 
our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor, as our 
fathers before us did. 



This day has too often been desecrated by pour- 
ing forth the phials ol' political wrath and exasperat- 
ing the ferocity of party animosities. The American 
people have too often exhibited the revolting specta- 
cle of converting the temple into an arena for secta- 
rian strife, and the birthday of national freedom into 
an occasion for mutual reproaches and vituperation. 
The day, the place are suited to other and higher 
themes. The American Revolution is the instru- 
ment by which Providence is accomplishing the des- 
tinies of the world. Its practical results are just be- 
ginning to dawn upon the astonished view of states- 
men and philosophers, and I fear that in attempting 
to direct your minds forward to the light, it is destin- 
ed to pour upon the whole face of the earth, I may 
be reproached with an imagination unchastened by 
the rigid restraints of cautious prophecy, j^et I will 
endeavor so to lay my foundations in solid truth with 
such materials as well established facts afford, that by 
reasoning from what has been to what may fairly be 
expected, you will find however gorgeous, however 
grand and ennobling the future looms in this morning 
ol our national existence, its noon of glory is within 
the hopes of ratiun;i1 und sound anticipation. 

Next to the Clitisliaii Revelation, no event in the 
history of the worid pL-ornises so much for the ameli- 
oration of the moral, hiteJlectual and social condition 
of mankind, as the event to whose contemplation our 
whole country devotes this day. Enough has already 
been accomplished both here and in Europe to excite 
our special wonder. But sixty-three years have roll- 
ed round, and already the principle of self-govern- 
ment is in the lull tide of successful experiment over 



a vast and fertile country, and seventeen millions of 
freemen scattered over its extended surface, on this 
day are renew^ing their vows, and strengthening their 
fidelity to a purely republican form of government- 
To us, whose term of life is threescore and ten or 
fourscore years, the lapse of time from the infancy of 
the world to the present period, seems a vast dura- 
tion; and that there is any important change not yet 
already worked, is deemed inconsistent with the 
power and benevolence of the Creator; yet^when we 
look upon the wonderful changes which the world 
has realh^ undergone, and consider how little each 
generation has contributed to them, we realize the 
truth that time, though its footsteps are so silent as 
not to disturb the ordinary avocations of men, is 
bringing round the most vital changes in all that re- 
lates to human happiness and improvement. By 
turning our attention to the nature of the American 
Revolution, and tracing the effect it has already pro- 
duced, the wonder will be that so m.uch has been 
accomplished in a space so short compared with 
past events. To fully,, comj^rehend its vast impor- 
tance, we must look back to the history of our coun- 
try, and the character of its first colonists. This whole 
continent was chiefly an uncultivated forest. If the arts 
of life, especially in that portion which comprehends 
the United States of America, ever had been known, 
all memory of the period when they flourished had 
passed away, occasional rehcts seem to point to a time 
when civilization and its accompanying refinement, 
arts and monuments may have flourished on this 
continent, but if this be true, the people who then 
possessed the soil, must have passed away- — ages on 



awes gone by — their bodies liad long since returned 
to their primitive elements — a deep and virgin soil 
lay upon their graves, and a primseval forest of gi- 
gantic growth had long ago converted their haunts 
into a pathless wilderness roamed tlirough bv sa- 
vages ionorantof agriculture, commerce or manufac- 
tures bevond the rudest implements, destitute of per- 
manent haljitations, and dependant upon the preca- 
rious fruits of the chase for a scanty subsistence. 
This singular race, it has been found utterly imprac- 
ticable to imbue with a taste for the habits, usages and 
mode of life of Europeans. They have gradually 
retired on the approach of the white man, or perish - 
in the contact; and Providence for its own good 
purposes, has destined the colonists from the old 
world, to come in and possess the land, driving before 
them the aboriginal inhabitants, like the Canaanites of 
old, that it may be held by a peculiar people fated to 
work out a mighty problem in the political and moral 
destinies of mankind. Thus it has been ordered, 
lliatihe lh(>ntre for tlie great expe]-iment in republi- 
can o()vcrnment shf)uld be a vast, fertile, uncultivated 
wild, where every thing was new and untouched, 
yet abounding in all the elements of future great- 
ness, with nothing yet moulded into form — nothing 
old but its woods and its streams — no superstitions 
lo conrpu'r — no temples sacred to some time honor- 
ed faith — no Institutions venerable for their antiquity 
and hallowed by immemorial usage, but reason and 
truth w'crc olfered an unoccupied field. 

Hitherto rejuiblics were either military communi- 
ties or small and turbulant associations, too limited in 
territory to possess great national strength, and sub- 



ject to all the outbreaks and violent revolutions, 
which beset small states where personal influence or 
family combinations can disturb the public harmony, 
and direct the power of the State to the ends of per- 
sonal aggrandisement. Sparta was little better than 
a camp, and her institutions only a modirication 
of martial law. Greece in her palmiest days, was 
but a collection of licentious m.obs, although luxury 
unchastened b}' a spiritual religion, did for a time 
spread a sickly halo of refinement over her corrupt 
but elegant society. 

Rome, originally a monarchy, was never a Repub- 
lic but in name, iier history is but a series ol* con- 
tests between the patricians and plebians, terminat- 
ing at last in the usur]3atiori of imperial power by 
successful military leaders. It was reserved lor 
America to begin with a people highly imbued with 
the true spirit of freedom, with no hereditary dis- 
tinction, no cast or class of society pretending to 
peculiar privileges, or possessed of exclusive power 
or wealth, and at the same time, a territory too ex- 
tensive to be swayed by local or family combinations. 
It was, indeed, the fullness of time when the first 
emigrants left Europe, to seek on these shores an 
assylum from the persecution of the old world. The 
Puritants of England — the Hugonots of France — the 
injured sons of Ireland — they had felt the evils of 
misrule, and learned to appreciate the advantages of 
freedom. The future destinies of our country are 
in no small degree affected by the characteristic 
peculiarities of those who were the parent stock of 
its future inhabitants. The colonists were almost 
exclusively of the European variety of the Caucasian 



10 

race — the nice of white men. They too, possessed 
the virtues, which at the period of the first colo- 
nization, distinguished the people of Great Britain 
and Ireland; a love of liberty, a spirit of adventure, 
and industjy, and a practical wisdom that enabled 
them to out-work and out-fight every other people 
on earth. They did not unite with, but extirpat- 
ed the aborigines, whereas the colonies from Spain 
and Portugal are almost lost in their intimate admix- 
ture with the native tribes of South-America, thus 
producing a motley mass, w^hose march to national 
greatness is so fitful and devious, as to engender well 
grounded fears of theirultimate success. To what- 
ever cause philosophy may ascribe it, the fact is well 
established, that the mongolian or mixed races do 
not possess, the hardy enterprize and steady perse- 
verence — the stern resolve and straight forward good 
sense which marks the European white man. Al- 
though the Southern Continent was first settled, yet 
the Spaniards and Portuguese had scarcely penetrated 
beyond a few hundred miles into the interior, and at 
their expulsion, had rather taught the native popula- 
tion their vices than the arts of civilized and educated 
Europeans. Had the United States been colonized 
by the descendants of the Moorish races of the pen- 
insula, instead of the white men of the North of 
Europe — the Narraganset — the Mohawk, 'and the 
Yemassee, would at this day have kindled their coun- 
cil fires in the land of their fathers, and however a 
sickly humanity, might rejoice at the apparent justice 
of their preservation, the world would have lost 
the opportunity of spreading civilization and true re- 
ligion over this vast contiuent, by the only class of 



men whom nature has impelled to those enterprizes, 
which result in a high state of refinement and culti- 
vation — and it is perfectly consistent with the great 
purposes of Providence, that the aboriginals of 
this country should give place to a generation, 
who have already converted their hunting grounds 
and forests into a populous and cultivated region, 
and substituted for their rude barbarous and bloody 
code, in which private revenge was inculcated as a 
virtue and stealthy assassination held for courage — 
a free Republic and mild and equal laws — and a 
system of warfare ameliorated by all the usages of 
civilized nations — the wilderness has been made to 
" blossom as the rose," and the Christian temple is 
reared on the spot where the altars of a blind super- 
stition once smoked with human sacrifices. 

The colonists left Europe at a period when the 
champions of truth had already roused the world to 
a full contemplation of the injustice and impolicy of 
religious persecution and political intolerance. They 
brouo^ht to our shores, not onlv devoted hearts, but 
understandings deeply impressed with the sublime 
principles of equal rights and self-government. They 
comprehended and vindicated their rights with a 
wisdom and learning so profound and extensive, and 
defended them with a courage so resolute and per- 
severing, that the world looked on with equal wonder 
and admiration at their olorious resolve and oallant 
bearing. From the first settlement of the countrv, 
the colonists maintamed a strenuous and firm deter- 
mination to resist the attempt of the mother countrv 
to engraft her monarchical and aristocratic institu- 
tions upon their stock, Thev claimed and maintain- 



12 

ed a praclical democracy, and were persevering- 
ly maturing the resolve, and the means to secure 
an entire independence of any [power; but to 
use a revolutionary phrase, " God and the Con- 
tinental Congress." With an infatuation which 
seemed to be the instinct inevitable fate, Great Bri- 
tain j)ersevered in a series of measures, calculated 
to wound the pride and alarm the spirit of indepen- 
dence, which animated the colonists, and thus preci- 
pitated an event at some time inevitable. Already 
the theorv of self-government was well understood, 
the utter absence of all right in a monarchy three 
thousand miles oifj to enact laws for a people of a 
different climate, manners, circumstances, wants and 
habits, was strongly felt and fearlessly uttered. To 
be taxed or ruled, except by themselves, through 
their own immediate representatives, was known to be 
tyranny under any form or modification which casuis- 
try could devise. It is not strange that such a people 
so situnled, nnbued with the true spirit of freedom, 
educated, persecuted, with a whole continent for 
their jissylum, and liberty for their prize, should 
have embraced the first opportunity for successful 
revolt. The people, too, at that period, were admi- 
rably fittt.ul to undertake a dangerous and bloody 
struggle. They did not tr(.mble at the roar of battle 
— "the spirit stirring drum — the ear piercing fife — 
and all th(3 pomp and circumstance of glorious war" — 
Ibund in them congenial spirits, for her youth had 
l)een trained to feats of arms along the lake frontier, 
and had joined 'v\ deadly conflict on the plains of 
Abraham, au<l l)eneath the walls of Q,uebec. The 
"old French war." \\\v\ brought them often in fearful 



13 

contact with the remorseless savage, and the disci- 
pHned troops of France ; and the first hostile gun fired 
by the foreign mercenaries, sent to awe them into 
submission, was a signal for every yoeman to clean 
and repair his faithful " king's arms," with which he 
had fought the battles of a nation, who threatened to 
reward his services by reducing him to the abject 
condition of a disfranchised colonist. The frequent 
call on the early settler to protect his home from 
desolation by his own right arm, had created a mili- 
tary feeling, a promptness for conflict, which <hs- 
tinguished the American Colonists. No equal po- 
pulation could produce so great a proportion ot 
brave, hardy and resolute soldiers. A people who 
placed sentinels to protect the ploughman while 
he was tilling his fields, and habitually attended 
church with loaded muskets, Vv-as not likely to pale 
at the sound of a drum, or fail to return the fire or 
a foe. 

Already the thirteen Colonies hud loi' the coutiril 
and the field, Adams, Otis, Franklin v.nd Jefferson- 
— Moultrie, Rutledge, Greene and \Va.shington, 
indeed, a galaxy of talent, leariiiiig, conduct and 
courage fully equal to the gigantic effort of laying 
the foundations of a mighty em|)ire of freemen. The 
various fortune with which they nccomplislied their 
design, from the first gun which was fired at Lexing- 
ton — the dreadful carnage of Bunker Hill — whose 
roar of battle was so promptly and .y;allantly s(?cond- 
ed from the ramparts of the old Puhnello Port, lluis 
pledging the North and the South to stand hy each 
other in the comma conflict — down throuiih all the 
ensuing struyglos to tlie eventCul day, on whicli the 



u 

white cnsiyii floalccl on the lines of Yorktown, and 
CoRNWALLis and his vanquished army, the meteor 
flag of Britain folded in token of submission, marched 
from their entrenchments, and surrendered to the 
American army, is familiar, as household words, to 
every American. This last triumph left the British 
too powerless to attempt another conflict. The eagle 
soared in triumph above the cowering lion, and 
our glorious stars and stripes, the gorgeous ban- 
ner of our infant nation floated over a liberated con- 
tinent in undisputed supremecy. These things are 
present to the minds, and engraven upon the hearts 
of every one, in whose veins the blood of '76 holds 
Its course. Every section our country felt by turns 
the scourge of war, and contiibuted its share to that 
vast renown with which our fathers vindicated their 
solemn Declaration of American Independence. 

After the excitement of the conflict was past, and 
the victors were left in the quiet jDossession of a coun- 
try rescued from its invaders, came the severest trial 
(){' their virtue. A victorious army surrendered their 
commission to a liberated people, and united in build- 
ing up a national government, which while it pre- 
sents to foreign countries an unbroken front of con- 
solidated strength, bidding proud defiance to aggres- 
■sion from abroad, securt\s to each State the full and 
iincontroled exercise of every sovereign power ne- 
cessary ibr the protection of the rights of individuals 
and the vindication of its domestic institutions; — a 
contrivance ol such singular wisdom as to excite the 
astcmislimcnl and puzzle the comprehension of the 
piofouudcsl statesmen ol the old world, who have 
l.M'cri tanulil lo coiisidef tlie absolute authority of 



15 

monarchy essential to the successful government of a 
great and powerful nation. Those temporary and 
partial jarrings of our political machine, incident to 
all that is new and untried, but which are always 
adjusted by the great regulating principle of the 
Constitution, are hailed by European sceptics as pre- 
sages of approaching dissolution, who take occasion 
to call on the disciples of monarcy to strengthen their 
faith and renew their allegiance to regal institu- 
tions to which they ascribe the exclusive virtues 
of permanence and strength, while we who witness 
these occasional irregularities and experience how 
surely they yield at last to the venerated rules of the 
Constitution, see in them only instances to admire 
and wonder at the simplicity and irresistible power 
of the great conservative principles of the Constitu- 
tion — mutual justice — mutual concession — and the 
unimpaired exercise of those "rights reserved to the 
States respectively and to the people " 

Let us now examine into the state of Europe, and 
see how far the contagion of our exampl® has spread 
throughout the body politic of the old world. The 
armies of France which shared in our struggle for 
freedom, could not mingle so intimately with the 
patriot bands of the Revolution without catching the 
enthusiasm which animated them — their brave associ- 
ates, they could not fail to kindle in the common blaze 
which warmed and animated the devoted soldiers of 
the Revolution. They inquired — they understood, 
and ardently espoused the principles which they so 
generously united to vindicate. They had bled and 
conquered in the cause of freedom — could they ever 
cease to be her disciples and vindicate her rights'? 



16 

Lafayette was the pupil and companion of Wash- 
ington — his followers were the comrades of the men 
of the Revolution. Their blood mingled in a com- 
mon conilict — they toiled together in a mutual strug- 
gle, and united in kindred acclamations on their joint 
victory — the victory of an injured people, striv- 
ing to shnke otF the yoke of arbitrary, self-consti- 
luted authority — the victory of republicans over 
royalty — of the people over their rulers. It was 
natural they should carry back to Europe hearts 
warmed with a love of liberty, and minds strongly 
imbued with those principles they had aided to vin- 
dicate with a gallant bearing, which has won for 
them forever a place in the annals of our nation and 
the hearts of our people. At the return of the army 
from America, the people of France were suffering 
under the accumulated wrongs of centuries. The 
legislative power was practically in an absolute mon- 
arch, whose throne was supj)orted by an aristocracy 
that monopolized the commissions in the army, and 
held vast esl>ates which contributed little or nothing 
to the public revenue. The clergy too was weal- 
thy and corrupt. The houses of the people were 
subject to midnight searches, and few dared to in- 
<|uire into the fate of a state prisoner when the door 
of the Bastile once closed upon him. A licentious 
philosophy had weakened the religious faith of the 
community, without substituting any other efficient 
guard against moral delinquency ; and the reasoning 
of her casuists could not fail to teach the people that 
ihoir own strength was ample to break their chains, 
and with their fragments to wreak a terrible retribu- 
tion upon the heads of their oppressors. The sue- 



17 

cess of our revolutionary struggle — the participation 
of her own soldiers, and above all the free and fre- 
quent avowal by them of the principles on which 
that conflict was w^aged, could not fail to diffuse 
through the whole.mass of the French people, the in- 
fluences of our example. Ages had amassed a fear- 
ful account of misrule against the reigning powers, 
and however humanity may weep over the excesses 
of the Revolution, it is not unnatural that maddened 
by the contrast of sudden emancipation they should 
have inflicted an indiscriminate vengeance upon all 
who were connected with those, who opposed their 
efforts, or attempted to interrupt their progress. 
Long and bloody as the Revolutionary conflict was, 
the very opposition of the established governments 
only contributed to spread still further, to scatter 
still more widely the seeds of Revolution over 
all Europe. Wherever the armies of the Republic 
moved, they carried with them the principles of the 
sovereignty of the people. The very storm which rag- 
ed with such awful violence, bore upon its wings the 
germ of democracy, and it will remain ready to spring 
up whenever the weight of military power is removed, 
by the successful efforts of the people. France has 
already secured for herself national blessings, which 
are enough to compensate for the long agony of her 
struggle, although far removed from the final accom- 
plishment of her j ust and laudable aspirations. As she 
was the first to adopt the principles of our Revolution, 
so has she accomplished most by her enterprize. She 
is no longer the inheritance of a family. Her King be- 
longs to France, not France to him. The people cal- 
led him to the throne — he does not claim it by divine 



18 

right, but lujlds it under a charter from the people. 
Her hereditary nobility— her hierarchy are suppres- 
sed. Her legislature comes I'rom the people, and 
sympathize with them. The more equal distribu- 
tion and minute division of landed estates — the ele- 
vated character of her artizans and peasantry — the 
extended influence of her merchants — the trial by 
jury — the right of the people organized as a national 
guard, to bear arms, above all the sense of freedom that 
animates this well organized militia, are all sure 
guarantees against a return to the age of absolute 
monarchy and hereditary nobility — a pampered and 
corrupt clergy — what France has done in three days, 
she stands ready again to achieve, and once more 
take in her own hands the power delegated to her 
rulers if they abuse their trust, and for this is she 
indebted under God to the principles promulgated 
on the 4th of July. 1776, Over the rest of Continental 
Europe, the spirit of liberty is silently, but surely 
making its way. The spread of education through- 
out Germany, is fast preparing that people to vindicate 
their consanguinity to the sturdy race, from which 
so many of the apostles of freedom boast their des- 
cent. In tracing the progress of free principles, no- 
thing cheers the heart with such delightful hopes as 
the unquestionable fact, that education is always the 
handmaid and companion of liberty. Rejected and 
and persecuted by the brutal and ignorant soldiery, 
she finds a welcome and a shelter in the secluded 
shades of the universities of Germany, and among 
their students her most devoted disciples — her bra- 
vest defenders — and it is remarkable that in our own 
country the Hrst advocates of American indepen- 



19 

dence were men whose acquirements as philosophers, 
and profound learning, threw around the struggle a 
light so bright and glorious as to challenge the respect 
and admiration of the most accomplished statesmen 
of the age. No class of our citizens contributed more 
zealous and unflinching advocates of the great cause* 
than the members of the learned professions. How 
triumphant a rebuke is this well known fact to the 
pitiful pretence that democracy is essentially vulgar — 
its disciples ignorant Jack Cades; and that the pa- 
tronage of a monarchy is essential to refinement and 
the cultivation of letters. How ennobling the con- 
viction that the spread of learning will keep pace 
with our institutions, and that a nation enlightened 
and educated is in truth alone capable of perpetuat- 
ing regulated liberty. American statesmen — go on 
in the great and honorable effort to train up the future 
men of the republic in her paths. Scatter in boun- 
teous profusion over our fair land the light of educa- 
tion, so that like the light of heaven, it may shine on 
every citizen of the republic — for then will liberty 
be armed with a shield, brilliant as the aegis of Miner- 
va, and girded with a zone lovely as the Cestus of 
Venus. 

The masses of Germany are preparing to demand 
and vindicate the rights of the people, notwithstand- 
ing the stern policy of its present rulers. Yet there 
is a gigantic combination to arrest the progress oi 
democracy and prop the decaying thrones of Europe. 
Her leading potentates unite in repressing every ef- 
fort to innovate upon the established swa}^ of heredi- 
tary monarchy, by alliances cemented by the blood oi 
the martyrs of liberty, and protected by the bayonets 
3 



20 

of a hired soldiery. The hard earnings of the pea- 
sant are wrung from him to pay the mercenary who 
points a bayonet at his throat if he dares to whisper 
of violated rights and arbitrary rule. The resources 
of the nations of Europe, now wasted in the main- 
tainance of her vast standing armies and her aristo- 
cracy and priesthood, if devoted to the improvement 
of the means of general comfort and convenience, in 
ten years would connect every city with railroads, 
crowd every river with steamboats, place a school in 
every village, and bring plenty and ease to every ha- 
bitation. Agriculture, commerce and manufactures 
would elevate the moral and intellectual standard of 
her whole population, and equalize in a great degree 
those blessings v/hich providence intended to be ac- 
cessible to all, who by their virtues and their indus- 
try deserved to possess them. Man, elevated to his 
native dignity, would become again the being his ma- 
ker formed him. The chains of the prisoner would 
fall off — the dreadful dungeons, where wretches have 
groaned away in hopeless solitude years of misery, 
would be levelled to their foundations — the secret 
places of inquisitorial torment would cease to be the 
shelter for cruelty and murder — religion, too, would 
no longer be disgraced by fanatical j^ersecutions, or 
supported by extortion — no wars waged to gratify 
individual revenge, or settle a disputed succession, 
would force from the cottage the reluctant conscript — 
the palace would no longer overshadow the squalid 
abode of wretchedness and want; but man, left to the 
free exercise of his faculties, would acquire the means 
and contract a taste for that honorable independence 
which alrendy distinguishes our own citizens. Such 



21 

is the prize for which the people of Europe are des- 
tined to contend. The conflict must be as dreadful 
as the issue is momentous. The powers that be will 
not yield without a death struggle. It is no easy task 
to strip royalty of its allurements, patronage of its 
influence, and power of its attractions. Mankind are 
divided between the disciples of the sovereignty of 
the people, and the divine right of hereditary rulers. 
One or the other must be admitted as the basis of law- 
ful government: they cannot exist together. Placed 
in the van in this great contest for human rights, the 
attitude of our own country is at once grand and aw- 
ful; and our sympathy as well as our own hopes of 
success induce us to look on with deep interest, while 
the battle is preparing on the other side of the wa- 
ter. The power which is busy in the old world to 
sustain its ancient institutions is of fearful extent : — 
vast armies cf mercenaries, commanded by the aris- 
tocracy — hereditary fidelity, long cherished habits 
and venerable prejudices, present formidable impedi- 
ments to the progress of truth, unaided and unsup- 
ported. If left to the exercise of their unbiassed 
judgment, nature has infused into the mass of man- 
kind an intuitive perception of right and wrong, 
which directs them with unerring sagacity to pursue 
their own interests. But ignorance is obnoxious to 
the delusions of prejudice, and in all ages, a love of 
power and its appendages has influenced the bold, 
active and persevering to employ fraud or force to 
gain the co-operation of the multitude, to aggrandize, 
at their own expense, the master spirits of the age. 
The past history of Europe presents the degra^i- 



22 

ing spectacle of the mass of the people busy in the 
task of forging their own fetters. 

In theory, man has both the capacity and the right 
of self-government; yet the past is a series of in- 
trigues and crimes, ])lanned and perpetrated to rob 
him of this precious prerogative. The American 
Revolution ^^'as the last and the greatest recuperative 
struggle for the restoration of the rights of man — - 
and final success depends on the extended influence 
of our example. The rest of the world will be our 
allies or our adversaries, so that every effort for free- 
dom affects our interest and enlists our warmest 
sympathies; and we look to the continent of Europe 
to vindicate the character of a people, whose descend- 
ants on this side the Atlantic are in the complete fi"u- 
ition of that liberty, the love of which is their well 
known characteristic. At the close of the American 
war, liberty strode over France, Germany, and in- 
deed all Europe, with the steps of a giant. But her 
career has been checked by the wars which grew out 
of the French Revolution. The stuj^endous power 
of large armies trained and conducted bv hereditary 
leaders, has thrown mountains upon her, to crush if 
It could not extinguish her ; — still the frequent strug- 
gles which shake and totter the thrones of her mon- 
archs, give warning, that though subdued, she is not 
annihilated — that the vital principle yet survives — 
and may with an earthquake-throw shake off the load 
that oppresses her, tear every throne from its founda- 
tion, and whelm their possessors in irretrievable ruin. 

The course ol" freedom is onward. Europe has 
already learned too much to retrograde. The art of 
j>rinting securely hands down to each succeeding 



23 

generation the knowledge and the sentiments of the 
past. Nature is persevering to demand her riohts. 
and, sooner or later, the sovereignty of the people — 
that elementary truth of political science — must tri- 
umph over the artificial and unnatural contrivances 
v^'hich have for so long opposed its sway. England, 
too, that stepmother who so harshly drove us from 
her, by teatment which her own spirit taught us not 
to bear, is destined yet to profit by the development 
and vindication of the principles of our Revolution. 
The hxed character of her people, their faithful at- 
tachment to her ancient establishments, but above all. 
their deep rooted regard for the really great and no- 
ble features in her laws and constitution, all contri- 
bute to extreme caution and hesitancy in pushing on 
the work of reform, from the apprehension, that the 
throes and struggles which attend the effort, ma}' 
shake and loosen the solid and cherished foundations 
of English liberty. But a^hough the caution be com- 
mendable, it may be too slow" for the spirit of the age. 
The reluctant justice which led to Catholic emanci- 
pation was but the beginning of that i-etribution due 
to Ireland for centuries of misrule, and was robbed 
of half its grace by the tardy and surly acquiescence 
of the hereditary councellors of England. The vast 
landed estates held by the nobility, who in their ca- 
pacity of legislators, secure to themselves by oppres- 
sive corn laws and other enactments, vast incomes 
out of the scanty earnings of the laboring poor — a 
clergy, too, enjoying princely revenues and legisla- 
tive power, independent of their congregations — the 
unequal representation of decayed municipalities — 
and the denial even to voters of the independence of 



24 

the ballot box, are all so much at war with the deep 
sense of right, the profound reverence of the English 
people for the principles of liberty and equality, that 
the entire mass of her people are in a state of irrita- 
tion, so inflammable that any unpopular succession, any 
rash act may excite a spirit that will not be laid until 
the nobility and clergy are reduced to their natural 
level — until the popular voice is heard and obeyed — 
until her laborers are permitted to obtain food for 
their families where they can procure it cheapest, 
and thus be relieved from that intolerable weight of 
unceasing toil, which wears out their bodies, and mad- 
dens, degrades and brutalizes their minds. Ireland, 
too, with seven millions of sturdy and brave but deep- 
ly injured people, have a long arrear of wrong to set- 
tle. The maintenance of a clergy imposed upon them 
against their consent, and paid through the odious 
levies of the tythe proctor — the forcible privation of 
a local legislature — are a f^ among the items of ac- 
count which await the day of reckoning, which how- 
ever long postponed, must one day come. Erin will 
yet write the melancholy but noble epitaph upon the 
tomb of her martyred Emmett. Yes — the people 
of England and Ireland look with a steady gaze on 
the progress of our experiment in self-government. 
They see us — able to cope with them in the deadly 
conflicts of war, and emulating them in all the enter- 
prizes of peaceful industry — contented at home, with 
all tlie necessaries of life — and respected abroad for 
our power, our good faith and national justice; with 
no hereditary nobility — no irresponsible clergy — no 
unequally selected legislature — no crown — no scep- 
tre — no laws prohibiting the poor from buying food, 



'-^o 



except at a price so high as to secure princely in- 
comes to the landed aristocracy: and when they 
see all this consistent with peace at home and na- 
tional greatness abroad, they ask themselves the 
momentous question, whether England should longer 
continue to endure them 1 Nay, all Europe is inno- 
culated with the principles this day proclaimed to 
the world as " self evident truths " — and the thrones 
of her princes are literally held at suiTerance. A 
conviction of the unsafe foundations on which they 
are built is constantly leading to alternate relaxation 
to soothe, and undue severity to awe their subjects. 
Their governments are all artificial and unnatural, 
based partly on force, partly on the prejudices and 
superstitions of the governed. But as these last give 
way to the lights of learning and the bright example 
of our own government, the body of the people will 
learn that their own physical force, when properly 
directed, can sweep away the artificial barriers which 
impede the full enjoyment of equal rights with an 
irresistible torrent, and consign those who raised 
them to irreversible overthrow. 

Governments founded upon a violation of the in- 
alienable rights of man, are necessarily liable to vio- 
lent convulsions. There is a constant struggle be- 
tween the oppressor and the oppressed. Whereas, 
those which are based upon the democratic principle 
have all the stability of truth. The people have then 
no motive to change their government, for it is their 
own — no usurper to dethrone, for they are themselves 
the only sovereign — no oppressive laws to shake oflT, 
for they alone can make and repeal them. All that 
was necessary to put these simple elements of rational 



26 

fjoverninent into successful operation, was to steady 
the action of the people and provide against the fluc- 
tuations of the popular will ; and this our wise and 
virtuous ancestors havi^ accomplished by the means 
of fundamental written constitutions, and a legisla- 
ture composed of representatives, bound by those 
charters, and responsible to their constituents through 
the ballot box. Our own is now the most stable 
govei'nnient on the face of the globe, and the least 
liable to convulsion and revolution. It is founded on 
the rock of truth — it leaves the governed nothing to 
regret, nothing to rescue. The power is all their 
own, and their interest learns them to use it for the 
general good ; and the day is fast approaching when 
capitalists on the other side of the water will be eager 
to place their treasures where they will be safe from 
civil convulsions; and those who seek for security 
and repose, will find it beneath the broad shadow of 
our own liberty tree, where they may securely sir 
down with "none to molest or make afraid." But 
the thrones of Europe are seated over a volcano 
whose elements are constantly boiling and rumbling 
beneath, and every tremor fills them with foreboding 
fears of an explosion that will engulph them all. If 
the dungeons of Austria could speak of the wTetches 
who linger incarcerated for no other crime than the 
open avowal of the very principles upon which our 
own Declaration of Independence is based, we should 
see motives strong enough to rouse the vengeance of 
outraged humanity. Or let us traverse the desert 
steeps of Siberia, and descend thousands of feet into 
the deep, cold, dark caverns of her rocky mountains, 
and there behold in her dreary mines of the Ural, the 



27 

wasted forms of miserable wretches in the human 
shape — men grizzled and cadaverous, over whose 
countenances rage and despair have united to cast 
an unearthly hue; look, too, at half starved and shiv- 
ering women crowded into some nook of naked rock, 
with tangled tresses, pale and haggered, until they 
seem not things of this earth, deprived not only of 
every necessary means of happiness, but shut out from 
the light of day — buried far beneath its surface, con- 
demned to toil among the bowels of the earth in si- 
lence and in misery — their very names no longer per- 
mitted to greet their ears, but numbered like beasts 
and subjected to the irresponsible cruelty of task- 
masters, with hearts hard as the cavernous rocks that 
imprison them. This mass ot human wretchedness — 
these hopeless prisoners — what dreadful crimes have 
they committed that they should suffer more than in- 
fernal torments, inflicted by their own fellow beim^s f 
Oh, my countrymen, these are the gallant patriots of 
Poland, who fought in a kindred cause with our own 
Washington — and their wives and sisters and mo- 
thers, reared with all the tenderness of refinement, 
are the wretched sufferers who bear them company. 
Such are the fruits of monarchy — such are the re- 
wards which tyrants hold out to the champions of their 
country's freedom. How long will an avenging God 
stay his red right arm? Wh}^ the impious wretch at 
whose nod these things are done dwells in j)alaces, 
and feasting and revelry are called into requisition to 
solace and rejoice him. But the day of dreadfu! re- 
tribution must come at last. And the 4th of July, 
1776, is destined to become not only the jubiblee of 
a nation, but of a liberated world ! 

4 



28 

Let us now return to our father land, and pass a 
liew moments in viewing the effects of the Revolution 
upon the political, moral and domestic propensities of 
our own citizens, and endeavor to trace out its in- 
fluences in rearing the national character ; and I trust 
that the time devoted to the investigation will lead 
every one to strengthen his attachment to the laws 
and constitution of the republic, and confirm his 
veneration, by enabling us all to give "a reason for 
the faith that is in us." The first remarkable effect 
of the successful struggle to shake off the yoke of 
foreign dominion, and assume an equal station among 
the nations of the earth, was the entire emancipation 
of the mind, the spirit of free inquiry, and an intrepid 
reliance on elementary truths, which became a set- 
tled rule of action, both in relation to moral and phy- 
sical investioations, and which has exercised adecid- 
ed influence both upon our laws and institutions, and 
upon the arts and sciences as cultivated among us. 

The Revolution itself was based upon abstract 
theory, the practical application of which to the ac- 
tvial purposes of life was held to be wild and vision- 
ary, by the political philosophers of Europe — yet it 
has succeeded so far; and so congenial is it to the 
most cherished feelings of our nature, that the temp- 
tation to |)ersevere is irresistible. Success has given 
confidence, and our people are resolved that they will 
receive nothing upon faith — that that which is false 
\\\ principle cannot be true in practice — and what is 
consistent with the dictates of common sense, is at 
least worth a fair trial. In Europe, the minute divi- 
sion of labor confines each operative to a department 
so limited, and his attention is so fixed upon perfect- 
ing his own exclusive share, that his mind is not call- 



29 

ed on to compare and combine. His whole attention 
is directed to perfect his own pecuhar work. He 
has no comprehension of the mechanical philosophy 
which is applied to the entire machine. His inge- 
nuity is not stimulated^to invent, to improve — nay, he 
is rebuked if he make the attempt — and he is taught 
that to innovate savors of disaffection. In countries 
whose institutions are based upon errors which long 
acquiescence have rendered venerable, to improve is 
dangerous — it is a kind of disloyalty. The mind in- 
sensibly habituates itself rather to palliate evils than 
to correct them. But here at the Revolution all was 
new — our country — our institutions — our very liber- 
ty — all unfettered by any usage grown into a cherish- 
ed habit; no institutions venerable from early associ- 
ations, or hallowed by traditionary recollections. 
Like our first parents going forth from the garden ol 
Eden, 

"The world was all before them where to choose 
Their place of rest and Providence their guide." 

with this striking peculiarity, that the men of that day 
had been reared in the school of adversity, and had 
gotten by heart its hard but useful lessons: a combin- 
ation so peculiar never yet distinguished the founder^ 
of a nation. Profound in learning, chastened by ex- 
perience, refined and cultivated, and yet wholly un- 
trammelled. Resorting confidently to elementary 
truth, they submitted every thing to its severe, unerr- 
mg test. In the mechanic arts we are distinguished 
by boldness and originality of invention, and apeculiar 
adaptation to the wants of a young and growing 
country, abounding in all the materials of improve- 
ment — and the demand for labor excites an ambition 
so universal, that every workman becomes a critic, 
and improves as an inventor. They contrive and ex- 



30 

periment, so that the entire intellect of the whole 
body of our mechanics is at work projecting and in- 
venting the means of saving time and labor. 

In politics and morals the same independence of 
intellect is producing similar results. As the per- 
fection of machinery is simplicity, so in morals, 
we hold nothing so old as to be too venerable for 
scrutiny — nothing so sacred as not to be submitted to 
the test of enlighted and respectful investigation. 
It is the habit of our people to expose every institu- 
tion, and every rule of action to the touchstone of 
common sense — so that improvement consists not as 
m other countries, in proping and supporting a de- 
caye(i fabric reared by error, and hitherto main- 
tained by blind superstition, but in pulUng down 
whatever is useless and out of proportion, we im- 
prove by dispensing with every part of our institu- 
tions which cannot stand firm and immovable, based 
upon the eternal foundation of equal rights. The 
statesmen of Europe look on with amazement at 
what they deem our bold and reckless career, and 
the self-confiding rashness with which we disregard 
all" those aj^pliances which they have been educated 
to bcHi^ve essential to the peace, the prosperity, and 
the power of a nation. They ask in wonder how 
we get along without an hereditary aristrocracy, to 
give stability to our laws, by constituting a perma- 
nent portion of the legislative power, or an established 
church to preserve the religion of the state a standing 
army to restrain the turbulance of the mob, and they 
arc lost in mingled pity and astonishment at the despe- 
rate and anarchical reply — that our aristrocrac}^ is 
composed of the most worthy among the body of the 
people, who find their way to the halls of legislation, 



31 

with no other patent of nobility than their own supe- 
rior wisdom and virtue. That we leave religion to 
the voluntary support of" its sincere votaries, and rely 
on the armed body of the people to preserve the 
peace and execute the laws. Our Revolution began 
a new era. The true nature of political power is 
thoroughly understood — the sovereignty of the peo- 
ple is not merely admitted, but successfully reduced 
to practice. Education disseminated through the 
body of the citizens, the possession and habitual use 
of arms, constitute Americans a peculiar people. — 
The coincidence has no parrallel, and it needs no pre- 
cedent to auo;ur well of the future. When learning 
was the attribute of a select few, and information 
was extended by oral repetition, the mass of the peo- 
ple were easily imposed upon. But general educa- 
tion and the habit of reading so greatly promoted by 
the daily press, renders it impracticable long to mis- 
lead or delude the majority. That power which 
depends upon the ignorance of those whose physical 
energies are essential to its own preservation, can 
only be maintained by the proscription of general 
education and a free press. It was reserved to us 
to resort to first principles — to reject crowns and 
sceptres as mere baubles, to dazzle the weak and awe 
the ignorant. Our rulers need no throne but an en- 
franchised continent — no sceptre but the people's 
confidence — no crown but the light that is reflected 
from free and fearless people, upon the heads of 
faithful public servants. 

The experience of Europe constitutes no criterion 
from which to infer the destinies of our institutions. 
The national character is essentially unlike. The 
people here are accustomed to live by their own la- 



32 

bor, till their own fields, choose their own rulers, and 
fight their own battles. They have no institutions so 
sacred as not to be habitually submitted to the test of 
principle. No orders who have been so accustomed, 
the one to rule, the other to submit as to be shocked 
at any transposition of functions. We have but one 
order, and that a royal one — the sovereign people. We 
obey not man, but only the law of the land which no 
one is so exalted as to violate with impunity, none so 
humble as not to feel its irresistible protection ; nei- 
ther is it wonderful, that we have a greater portion 
of men of eminent ability in our public councils since 
the selection, instead of being confined to priviliged 
orders, reaches the whole body of the people. Some 
of the leading statesmen and military officers of the 
Revolution were laboring mechanics. Sherman and 
Greene owed their elevation to nature alone. To 
this cause we owe the fact that young America has 
been able both in diplomacy and war, to cope with 
the most adroit statesmen and accomplished leaders 
of the old world; and to this cause the world will 
hereafter attribute in no small degree the wonderful 
progress of this country in all that enlightens, and 
elevates the political and moral character of a peo- 
ple. The abrogation of all birthright tenures of 
office, even the highest, if in other countries and 
among an uneducated mass, it leads to turbulance 
and conflict, produces entirely different effects upon 
us— it unfetters the intellect of the whole people, 
rouses the talent of the nation, by holding out the 
bright reward of persevering industry and elevated 
action to every aspirant, and suffers nothing of the 
national mind to languish in obscurity for want of 
stimulus. The most exalted station is equally the 



33 

birthright of the humblest citizen, if he will win it by 
his superior merit. Not only our laws, but what is 
still more important, the practice under them is to 
disregard every other title to office, but individual 
personal character; ours is a practical democracy, 
and our motto — 

" Palman ferat qui meruit." 

So thoroughly is this principle disseminated, that 
every aspiring mother whispers it into the ear of her 
son, when she would rouse him to exertion and give 
him thus " a motive and a cue to action," 

Our country is distinguished from most civilized 
nations, by the abundance of the necessaries of life, 
which every where prevails. The very literature of 
Europe seems filled with incredible fable. The 
wretched abodes of squalid poverty, beneath the 
very shadow of abounding wealth, stories of educat- 
ed men and females reared in all the luxuries of life, 
for want of employment, pining in an obscure garret, 
shivering with cold, and perishing from starvation, 
cease to excite sympathy from the conviction that in- 
trudes itself upon the reader — that it is impossible. 
So accustomed are we to consider at least the neces- 
saries of life a matter of course, that when we pe- 
ruse accounts of whole districts of people wasted by 
pestilence, brought on by starvation and unwhole- 
some food, we have no experience by which to esti- 
mate the extent of the misery which pinching want 
inflicts ; and almost relieve ourselves from painful 
sympathy by the suggestion — this must be fictitious 
sorrow. Yet such scenes are awful realities which 
swell the mass of human wretchedness, in many of 
the civilized and refined nations of the old world. 
Behold the contrast in this land of liberty — where 



34 

food IS so abundant, that the very felons who inhabit 
our penitentiaries, are better fed than the laboring 
poor in most of the nations of Europe. Throughout 
our wide domain, every human being not afflicted 
with disease, by the most moderate exertion, obtains 
not merely the means of sustaining life, but that abun- 
dance which enables the strong and robust to extend 
a liberal charity to the unfortunate. Such is the 
mighty bounty of heaven to this fair land, that her 
sons may " eat the fat and drink the sweat, and send 
portions to those for whom nothing is prepared.'' 
Crimes against property are rare and always with- 
out excuse. A tythe of the ingenuity and labor|which 
it would cost a thief to acquire his precarious plun- 
der, would support him as an honest man. 

The immediate eifect of this facility in supplymg 
the absolute wants of life, is to afford to the laborer 
time to think, to read, to feel — his knowledge is ex- 
tended, his mind expanded, his heart purified, his 
sentiments refined, his self-respect established. Bru- 
tality and vice is the characteristic of an overworked 
population. They are callous to the refined and bet- 
ter feelings of their nature. Absorbed in the single 
object of procuring food, they sink below even the 
brute creation. Excessive labor bows down and 
wears out the body, and degrades the whole man, 
his pride is humbled, his hopes crushed by an unceas- 
ing round of toil, leaving scarce time for wasted na- 
ture to recruit her energies, and this continues till 
he crawls into an obscure grave, cursing in the bitter- 
ness of his heart the day that he was born, leaving 
too, to his poor children no inheritance but the same 
routine of incessant labor. Nothing but institutions 
founded upon a fraudulent inequality of rights could 



compel man to such degradation. The contrast in 
our own America, should fill every bosom with honest 
pride — here there is not a more enlightened and in- 
telligent class of society than our operative mechanics 
— none who more diligently scan and scrutinize every 
measure, which bears upon the welfare of the public ; 
and the right of suffrage, and their enrolment in the 
militia, render them able in every way to preserve 
those free institutions, under which they assume their 
equal standing in society. They have time to con- 
template their native dignity as freemen, to educate 
and direct their children, to participate in the govern- 
ment of their country, and when called on, their arms 
are able and their hearts ready to defend it. A new 
country thus aboundino in the necessaries of life, 
was the fit theatre on which to display in all their 
perfection the genuine principles of democracy — for 
here alone, the people are independent and enligh- 
tened. 

The uniformity of language which is destined to 
prevail over so vast a country, capable of sustaining a 
population almost without limit, is an important ele- 
ment in forming a national character. The general 
education carried with them by the settlers of our 
wild lands, preserves the purity, and the press con- 
firms the use of one language in every quarter. This 
is itself a bond of union — as nothing makes us fee! 
more at home than to meet with persons who speak 
our native language. It is a fraternal tie that makes 
us feel they are our fellow-citizens. 

The physical character ofour count ry is also well 
calculated to co-operate with other influences in 
moulding our national characler. Its immense ex- 

5 



36 

panse — stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
with every variety of cHmate, from the rocky shores 
of New-England, to the sunny wilds of Florida, tra- 
versed by mighty rivers that roll on through untrod- 
den forests — wide prairies and vallies teeming with 
all the luxurience of primal fertility. Mountains 
that touch the skies — cateracts that thunder and 
shake the solid earth, and throw back the broken 
waters to the heavens, reflecting all the orlories of the 
rainbow. This grand outline filled with magni- 
ficent harbors — cities where commerce spreads her 
sails, cultivated fields, delighful villages, a population 
refined and enlightened — proudly confiding in their 
ability to maintain this rich inheritance against a 
world in arms, and busy in all the arts and pursuits 
of civilized life. Already our great waters traversed 
by steamers that stem their sweeping currents, and 
roads of commerce and travel, fast constructing, 
which will (Miable our people to pass from its extre- 
itiilies so ra])id]y, that our domain will unite compact- 
ness and consolidated strength, with all the advan- 
tages ol'an extended empire; and by frequent inter- 
course, and mutual protection bind together every 
(]uart(M- ill the indissoluble bonds of fraternal good 
will ;)ii(] perpetual union. 

Willi >ui'!i n. couiitrv it is not to be wondered at, 
iliat our citizons should present a manliness, a selt- 
(•onliding, self-poised character, which a superficial 
observer mistakes for rudeness, and our language ac- 
cpiiie a boldness and freedom so unlike the humility 
and deference of tlie lower classes of Europe. Our 
citizens know ;ind feel that they possess a great and 
noble country, and that it is all their own — that they 



37 

hold it by no other tenure than their own stout hearts 
and strong arms, and they are proud of it. Our very 
boys catch the enthusiasm, and seem impatient of 
protracted childhood, and eager to join the throng 
of enterprizing, busy m.en. The wants of life inspire 
no dread, its vicissitudes no apprehension : confiding 
in their own energies, and attracted by the extended 
field of action open to them, they bound forward in 
the career of life with no hesitating fears, no palteriui: 
forebodings. The poor, friendless boy soon becomes 
the valued man of business, the accomplished orator 
or statesman, and looks back without a blush to his 
humble origin. Young men of 1113^ country — it is to 
the event we now commemorate, you owe these bright 
destinies. A Republic is the kind nurse of manly eu- 
terprize and honoriible emulation. Love the great 
commonwealth your fathers this day founded, and be 
faithful to it in everv variety of its fortunes. Al- 
ready has our character as a nation become so iixeil 
that Europeans who seek, as oar progenitors in then- 
day did, an asylum, and a scope and verge of action 
in this new and growing empire, easily assiiuilatc 
themselves to our habits, aud soon svmpatluze m al! 
our peculiar predilections and national ciiaractens- 
tics, and thus increase the strength and extend the 
cultivation of our wide spread and fertile land. It is 
iust, that we who alreadv have a home m this lioU 
land of liberty, should imitate the hospitable knights 
of St. John at Jerusalem, and welcome every pilgrim 
that journeys to her dwelling place and would wor- 
ship at her altars, as a companion and a brother — 
open our gates to the way worn traveller, and bid 
him welcome to our shores. The nature of our in- 



38 

stitutions has been manifested to the world in our 
intercourse with foreian nations. A firm deter- 
mination to do no wrono, and to submit to none, 
has not failed to command admiration and respect, 
while our gallant army and navy have afforded to 
foreigners the most conclusive arguments, that the 
same spirit that won our freedom is ever prompt to 
vindicate and protect it. In truth, the habits and 
pursuits of our people from the first settlement of 
these shores, have made them a bold and hardy race. 
They were on the first occupation of the soil compel- 
ed to meet a savage and cruel foe, unrestrained by 
the usages of honorable warfare. The path of the 
white man through the forest was waylaid by a wily 
enem}', and midnight was made horrible by the con- 
flagration of his dwelling. Always exposed, the set- 
tler learned to be prompt and decisive in action; and 
the annals of chivalry afford no parallel to the feats of 
noble daring which graced our unpretending ances- 
tors. They grew to be emphatically a brave and 
gallant band. 

Their early pursuits, too, made them familiar with 
privation and danger. On shore they encountered 
the fatigues of the chase, and on the main they pur- 
sued Leviathan from pole to pole, and braved him in 
his own element. Thus habituated to look death in 
the face, they lost all unworthy fears of his approach, 
and left to their posterity an example which they 
must never forget. 

Of all the moral influences which have resulted 
Irom the Declaration of American Independence, 
none are more obvious or more cherished than the 
chanoe it has worked in the condition and character 



jt: 



39 

of women. As rational beings, subject to all the ills 
of life, and constituting a moiety of mankind, every 
revolution in human affairs affects them for good or 
for evil. 

To see in full relief the might}^ change which this 
event is fated to work in all that concerns the well 
being of women, we must contrast their situation and 
character in other climes and under other institutions. 
History justifies the remark, that every advance in 
civilization tends to ameliorate their condition. — 
Among savages, the strength of man enables him to 
restrain them within the humblest sphere, and con- 
sio;n them to the most menial offices. Each being 
uncultivated, those sympathies which give to com- 
panionship its charms are neither felt or cherished. 
The first advances of civilization divide the men in- 
to haughty tyrants and abject menials — and beauty 
becomes the spoil of the conquerors, who deck them- 
selves with it with the same heartless pride with 
which they wear their other ornaments, and value it 
no more — and like their jewels, they lock their wo- 
men up from the rest of the world, where they pine 
in listless luxury ; their best affections wither and de- 
cay for want of that mutual sensibility that alone can 
awaken and develope them. What is the queen of the 
harem fed on dainties, clothed with splendor, but a 
poor bird fluttering in a golden cage, and longing for 
that liberty which itself is happiness. The gorgeous 
trappings of eastern luxury but cloak bosoms heaving 
with concealed attachments, or hearts withering in the 
blight of suppressed emotions. A youth of tasteless 
folly and an age of apathy is the fate of woman, in 
countries where they are treated only as beautiful 



40 

appendages to their imperious masters. The Spar- 
tan mother was vahied rather for those attributes 
which arc pecuhar to the belles of Patagonia, and 
their children were taken from them in their infancy 
lest they should imbibe the weakness of domestic af- 
fections, whicli it was held a duty rather to suppress 
than cultivate. Women were deemed unworthy to 
develope the hearts or direct and cultivate the minds 
of tlu^ir sons. Even the Athenian women became 
rather corrupted than refined, in an age in which the 
mysteries of the Elusinia were substituted for a 
sp^iritual religion. In the heroic ages, when errant 
knights wandered about to rescue imprisoned dam- 
sels from the blue beards of the day, what was the real 
condition of high born maidens or the proud dames 
who sat in castle halls ? Their marriages were heart- 
less bargains, negotiated by haughty barons, to 
strengthen some clan, or heal some wasting feud, or 
obtain some coveted domain. When first torn from 
its parent stem, it gratified the pride and pleased the 
fancy of its rude possessor; but its freshness once 
withered, the lovliest flower was thrown away with 
coldest apathy. She was comparatively fortunate 
who carried to the altar a vacant heart, as she es- 
caped the keenest pangs of compulsory wedlock, 
where every smile is a wound, every caress an insult. 
The victims of avarice or pride, their murmurs were 
hushed by the terrors of the donjon. Education 
and religion have always been auspicious to the 
fate of women. It is now more than three thou- 
sand five hundred years since there commenced 
a race, who by a wonderful Providence preserve 
to this day a knowledge of the true God, and 



41 

have, through all the vicissitudes of the world, read 
one book, vi^hose historic lore and sublime poetry, 
are united with the moral precepts of the Decalogue. 
In the gloomiest ages which have intervened, in the 
darkest night of ignorance and barbarism, this chosen 
people have cherished and transmitted the precepts 
written by the finger of God upon the tables of Sinai. 
The fire that burned on Horeb thirty centuries ago, 
has been preserved with more than vestal vigilance, 
and has lighted their path through ages of dreary 
wanderings and persecution — and the uniform char- 
acter of this people in every vicissitude has been a 
kind and respectful regard for their daughters, their 
sisters, and their wives — from the day when Jacob 
courteously rolled the stone from the mouth of the 
well of Haran, that Rachel might water the flocks of 
Laban, the daughters of Israel have always been 
treated by their brethren with that consideration and 
regard which comports with the injunctions of their 
venerable creed. The poet, true to nature, has not 
failed to throw a flood of heavenly light over the half 
civilized chivalry of the middle ages, in the charac- 
ter and virtues of the highsouled, but lovely Rebecca. 
If the effect of education and religion has done so 
much for one portion of mankind, what may not 
woman hope for in a land, where the diffusion of 
learning is '^the very passion of the age — where our 
institutions are based upon right and justice, and 
wdiere the acquisition of abundance and honor is the 
reward of talent and perseverance, and may and often 
does raise the humble maiden to become the honored 
wife or mother of the first citizens of the Republic, 
and their cherished companions and associates. It 



42 

must not be forgotten too, that the equal distribution 
of fortune exempts all, even the poorest women of 
our country from that hard and continued toil which 
mars the fair proportions of their frames, and im- 
parts to their features that grossness which marks 
the peasantry of Europe ; compare the women who 
labor in the fields of France, Germany and Italy, or 
drag out their wretched days in the workshops of 
England, living in confined and unwholesome facto- 
ries by day, and huddled into crowded cellars or 
garrets by night: look at their ill shaped forms, 
their squalid dress and haggered countenances — 
and compare them with the bright faces, and agile, 
and symetrical forms of the daughters of the Ame- 
rican farmer, and no doubt can remain that every 
generation will go on to improve in beauty and 
refinement, and in after times our Republic will 
display among other blessings, it will bestow upon 
its citizens, woman decked in all the charms of na- 
tive beauty, and refined by the influences which 
a generous confidence and equal station in society 
are calculated to create and sustain, while the equa- 
lity in fortune and rank, which must continue to pre- 
vail, affords neither the means or temptation to waste 
their lives in unmeanino^ frivolities, and neeflect those 
domestic avocations, which preserve and purify their 
best affections, and elevate them both in morals and 
intellectual acquirements, and give to home its chief 
endearments. There is no era in human history, 
which deserves to be more gratefully remembered, 
and appropriately honored by them than the 4 th of 
July, '76, when those principles were solemnly pro- 
mulgated, in whose application to the affairs of life, 
they are so deeply interested. 



43 

With all these elements of national greatness, all 
these means forming a national character, free from 
the disturbing influences of the old world, and all this 
prospect of spreading our empire over this continent, 
still America stands alone. Our own is the only Re- 
public on earth tliat possesses the physical power to 
defend itself from abroad, and give to the democratic 
principle a fair and full scope for its practical devel- 
opement. The majority of the world is against us. 
Monarchy still holds its sway over Europe. The hun- 
dreds of millions who swarm over Asia are still the 
slaves of despots — and freedom is a stranger even to 
their most remote asperations. Africa has not ad- 
vanced in civilization since the days of Hannibal — 
her people are ruled by petty despots, and education 
is absolutely unknown. Indeed, throughout most of 
the nations of the East, the modern traveller is aston- 
ished to find the accounts of remote history so exactly 
verified by present appearances. The Arab still 
wanders over the desert — the sons of Ishmael still 
dwell in the tents of Kedar. The white race seem 
destined by Providence to develope the faculties, and 
ameliorate the character and elevate the condition of 
mankind — and in this great march of mind the United 
States of America are placed in front. The eyes 
of the whole world are upon us. If with all the pe- 
culiar advantages which have combined to give the 
experiment of self-government a full and fair oppor- 
tunity of proving its perfect adaptation to the peace, 
prosperity and refinement of the world, we should fail 
at'last of signal success, to what event can the friends of 
freedom look for another trial 1 No my countrymen — 
you are the chosen instruments of Providence to re- 



44 

generate mankind — to break down the strong holds 
of oppression — to elevate man to his native dignity — 
to raze the altars of despotism to their foundations, 
and erect upon their ruins the glorious temple of 
freedom. Already the educated portion of Europe 
has caught the contagion — already the three millions 
of patriots, who this day, 1776, proclaimed our na- 
tional independence, have subdued the Western wil- 
derness, and number seventeen fmillions, '^still going 
ibrward conquering and to .conquer in this glori- 
ous conflict for the rights of man. Five thousand 

O 

years look down upon, us from the thrones and high 
places where tyrants have trodden on the prostrate 
necks of their sufferinsf fellow beins^s, and bid us not 
to falter in the battle — and heaven itself, by its 
frequent kind providences in our eventful career, 
seems to say to us, "Fear not, nor be dismayed: be 
strong, and of good courage." Sixty-three years ago 
and the sovereignty of the people had scarce a soli- 
tary advocate beyond the closet of the philosopher — 
and this day a great nation is gathered together in 
their temples to sing anthems of praise to God, and 
to renew at his altars the vows of their fathers, to 
maintain our free Constitution. Our sister republics, 
too, have shaken off their dependence on foreign 
monarchs, and although they are destined to pass 
through a fiery ordeal before they are sufficiently 
purged from the vices of their former rulers, still our 
example and their own dear bought experience must 
ultimately lead them to the establishment of perma- 
nent republics. 

But on this our day of our jubilee, let us not for- 
get the first-born of our own Republic — bone of our 



4^ 

hone and flesh of our flesh — her germ of population 
transplanted from our own bosom — Texas starts in 
her career with every advantage which characterized 
the commencement of our own. An educated peo- 
ple — a successful war — a fertile and extended do- 
main — she can command her destinies, and gives the 
cause of self-government another vote in the council 
of nations. And we this day hail with fraternal con- 
gratulations her bright star just emerging from the 
political horizon, and bid it God speed to its zenith of 
national renown. Although it be a single star, we 
view its adver.t to the firmament without an emotion 
of jealous fear, or one panor of painful regret — for it 
IS no erratic body shot madly from its sphere; it 
leaves our own glorious constellation undiminished : 
and so may thev shine on in brightness and in har- 
mony together through all time to come. 



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